Season 4 Episode 16: You Gotta Know When to Hold ‘Em (1)

Steve leaves. He walks out on Marcy to become a park ranger at Yosemite, blaming her for his hair loss and the growth of his nose, and suing her for alimony on the way out. Marcy moves in with the Bundys, and Peggy’s remedy for a woman whose husband has left her is Las Vegas, which is how the two of them end up in a casino with somebody else’s money and no supervision.

It is the beginning of the end of the show’s original configuration. David Garrison’s departure removed one of the four adults the series had been built around, and this two-parter has to dismantle the Rhoades marriage and get Marcy somewhere she can function alone. The casino gives her something to do other than grieve, and the episode is careful to make her grief real before it starts making jokes about it.

This is also the first episode in which the studio audience applauded the cast as they walked onto the set mid-scene, a habit that stuck for the rest of the run and is audible in almost every later episode. It is a small marker of how the show’s standing had changed since the Rakolta boycott.

Details for the record: Al reveals he had hernia surgery in April 1989; Peggy’s Mystery Pack is visible in the refrigerator; and the “555” and “SHOE” lettering faintly visible on Al’s shoe soles is a callback to “976-SHOE.” Michael Stoyanov, the pizza boy, went on to star in Blossom, whose pilot previewed five months later. The casino and lounge sets were also used on 227.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: February 11, 1990
• Season 4, Episode 16, and the 73rd episode of the series
• Part one of two. Part two is “You Gotta Know When to Fold ’Em.”
• Written by Sioux Doanham
• Directed by Gerry Cohen

Guest Cast

• Michael Stoyanov as the pizza boy
• Lawrence Lott as the dealer
• Michael Saccente as the man

Steve Leaves

Steve walks out on Marcy to take a job as a park ranger at Yosemite, which wrecks her and lands her camped out at the Bundys’. Peg’s prescription is Las Vegas, funded by selling Al’s television and running his credit cards to the limit. The two of them lose everything at the tables in about eight minutes. Al comes home and finds a blank wall where the television was.

This is the beginning of David Garrison’s exit from the series as a regular, played as a real marital collapse rather than a gag, which makes the Vegas half land harder than it otherwise would. Marcy is suing for alimony by the end of part one.

Famous Quotes

• Marcy: “And if you ever touch me again, I will slap you so hard, even your name will be swollen.” Marcy to Steve, on his way out the door.
• Bud: “What did I do wrong?” Kelly: “Nothing. Don’t you know anything about women?” Bud: “Well… no?” Kelly, briefly the expert in the room.

Notes

• The title riffs on Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.”
• First episode in which the studio audience applauds characters as they enter a scene.
• “555-SHOE” is visible on Al’s shoes, a callback to the earlier season 4 episode “976-SHOE.”
• Michael Stoyanov, the pizza boy, went on to star in the pilot of Blossom.
• The casino and bar sets were reused for the two-part 227 episode “Do Not Pass Go.”
• Kelly malapropisms worth listening for: “lah-sag-nee,” “Jellystone Park” for Yosemite, and “death in Texas” for death and taxes.
• Goof: one of Peggy’s lines is dubbed and cuts off the dialogue before it, and Bud is wearing his opening-credits shirt near the end.